Category Archives: Alan Lomax

[This is the second and concluding post about the trip the Willowy Bride (AKA, the WB) and I took along the Delta portion of the Mississippi Blues Trail in May 2013. For Part 1, go here.] * * * * … Continue reading →

A Review of Ted Gioia, Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. [NOTE: Once upon a time, I hoped to write a book on the origins … Continue reading →

A Review of Ian Zack, Say No to the Devil: The Life and Musical Genius of Rev. Gary Davis. The University of Chicago Press, 2015. “I done come this far, I don’t find no fault, well I feel just like … Continue reading →

A Review of R.A. Lawson, Jim Crow’s Counterculture: The Blues and Black Southerners, 1890-1945. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010. [NOTE: As I’ve explained elsewhere, my initial interest in the Blues developed because my older son and I were … Continue reading →

A review of Daniel Beaumont, Preachin’ the Blues: The Life & Times of Son House. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. The cover picture on the double compact disc, “Son House: Father of the Delta Blues: The Complete … Continue reading →

A Review of Robert Riesman, I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. [NOTE: 2011 was a very good year for Blues biographies: three reputable university presses … Continue reading →

Muddy Waters (April 14, 1915-April 30, 1983) was born McKinley A. Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. His family moved farther north, to the Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, when he was about three, and it was there that he eventually taught … Continue reading →

Geographers define a “delta” as the triangular-shaped fertile area created by siltation at the mouth of a river. But, when Blues fans refer to “the Delta,” “the land where the Blues began,” we mean “the fertile alluvial plain shared by the … Continue reading →

[Note: This post is the companion piece to “20th-Century Blues Women.” A slightly different format this time, without an introductory essay (for those interested in one, go here.); instead, I offer biographical sketches of some favorite 20th-century Blues men and a song or two that capture the essence … Continue reading →